Tom Brady: 'It was great' players took a knee during anthem before NFL games in 2017

CBS Sports | Jun 18

The primary headline of Tom Brady's interview with Oprah Winfrey that aired Sunday was Brady saying he planned to walk away from football "sooner rather than later." (Never mind that mathematically this should be obvious to everyone; Brady is 40 years old.)

But also coming out of that interview is Brady saying "it was great" to see people take knees during the national anthem, an interesting stance from one of the league's most recognizable faces in the wake of the NFL making it a violation of league policy to take a knee on the field when the anthem plays in 2018.

"I think there were a lot of really good, healthy conversations coming out of it in our locker room. The great part about sports are the relationships. I've been in it for a long time. I've been with guys from all different parts of the country -- every color, race, belief and you know what ... I respect what people are doing. And they're doing it for different reasons, and that's okay," Brady said. "You know, you can do things for your reason. They can do things for their reason, and you have respect for that. But, I thought it was great."

Brady also talked about how the Patriots locked arms during the period of time last year when things got particularly heated. President Donald Trump spoke at a rally in Alabama, criticizing NFL players, and a large portion of the league responded on the field.

This included the Patriots, with Brady saying after the team locked arms that he believed Trump's comments were "divisive."

He told Winfrey in the recent interview the Patriots had meetings about how to handle things and ultimately settled on locking arms before the game.